I promised a banger, here comes a banger. Like, subscribe, ring a bell, idk what you do on WaniKani, I’m not a travel blogger ^^
April 26th, 2025
- 128 reviews on WaniKani
- 15 lessons on WaniKani
- 49 reviews on Bunpro
- 3 lessons on Bunpro
- 1 lesson on Duolingo
- 3 stories on Satori Reader
- Book club: 葬送のフリーレン第４３話
- Misc: window shopping the whole Japanese district in Paris, going to Book-off and an actual Japanese library and pondering too many purchases
- Misc: talking to an organizer of Japan FES Paris about my adventure ahead ^^
Language: Oh yeah, did a lot of Japanese study today, even unintentionally so, I tried the Fujiki Consulting Services today on Satori Reader and really liked it ^^
Anyway, tomorrow’s WaniKani number might be really REALLY high and because I might be switching timezones, I might have to do at least 2, maybe even 3 review blocks, same for Bunpro.
Life:
Far From Home Arc, Day #2 C:
You know what? I’ll divide this into section, because today’s post is going to be gigantic. I hope you stick for everything and that you like it, but let’s go around step by step and section by section ^^
I’m doing it this long because I want to send this post to all my friends and my family so that they would have a centralized source of truth of how I was today ^^
Japanese district in Paris!
I looked up on Google Maps at like, 1pm, that there is a Japanese Travel Agency in Paris in one location and I just decided to walk to it lured by Google Maps. Most blursed decision of my day, for many reasons xddd
It was huge, even bigger than the Little Tokyo in Düsseldorf, and I just went and kept doing window shopping for like, dozens of minutes xddd
And remember when I said
?
I’m sorry, I was completely wrong, I take it back xdddd
And so, SO many Japanese restaurants throughout the city, at least five times as many as in Berlin, I’m probably being serious.
Ahh, I didn’t expect for there to be this much, frfr 
Manga market in France...
…is doing exceptionally well. I’ve known about it before, but I didn’t necessarily understand the scale and why? I hope that with the pictures above you’ll understand why is it as big as it is xddd
I found the issue of Manga Issho in French with a promise that the next issue would come out in June, looking forward to it very strongly ^^
In addition to there being a LOT of localization and translation houses, the second-hand market is doing really strong as well, you can stumble upon a random used bookstore and pull out something like a second-hand copy of the other manga of 薬屋のひとりごと, I intend on not reading this ever in my life because it’s in French, but damn, it looks really pretty, feels nice to touch and look at the price point xddd
Japanese bookstores in Paris
There are two more Japanese bookstores in Paris than there are in Berlin. Coming in at exactly two sharp xddddddddd
I’ve been looking around Berlin, but to no avail. So imagine my surprise when I’m walking across the Japanese district and I stumble upon…
…an actual Book-Off. With a legit section for used manga in Japanese xddd
To be honest there, there is a 70%/30% split between Japanese things and French things, there is impossibly much French manga in there, some French video games and DVDs/CDs, but the Japanese section is a legit Japanese section xdddd
One thing to keep in mind though is that those are used books, and most of them are manga issues that are like 10+ years old, bUT THEY’RE AVAILABLE AND YOU CAN GET VOLUMES FOR LIKE €1 EACH ITS CRAZY AAAAA
I got decision paralysis and didn’t end up buying anything after like an hour of standing there, but this is where my attention was drawn to JUNKUDO Paris, a bookstore with new, fresh manga, books, japanese reading materials…
…and magazines. I love magazines xddd
Of course, there is a crazy markup on the prices, something like 3x the Japanese price, but I still bought the first volume of 気になってる人が男じゃなかった, so I have it both in German and in Japanese right now, we stan ^^
Japan FES Paris
Sooo, going out of the Junkudo bookstore, I found a flyer for Japan FES in Paris and at that time I knew I was done for and my day has been decided at this point xddddd
It was like three kilometers to the south, so I just gently complied, and…
aaaaaa xxddddd
I was able to speak to the guy organizing this in Paris, at first, we tried English, but since he was struggling with it, I just decided to switch over and start struggling in Japanese myself instead xddd
Told him of my travel plans (I didn’t tell you yet, I’m waiting at least until I’m in America to spill the beans xddd), told him about other Japanese things I saw today, some food I ate and asked him to make one of the Japan FESes in Berlin, we never seem to get those xdd
But for real though, by comparison, the Japanese culture in Berlin is nothing compared to Paris, Düsseldorf feels a little less fanbase’y and a little more utilitarian, but Paris fanbase definitely is bigger. I was so surprised by the fact there even was Paris FES there in the first place.
I didn’t end up buying any onigiri because I really can just get them in Berlin if I felt like it xdddd
But yeah, wheel cake, that looked really fun! I got deterred by the price though, because how much can I spend for food, for real xdddd
Polish bookstore, Elementarz Falskiego and Why You Should Care
So, there is one more Polish bookstore in Paris than in Berlin… at ONE in tot- okay, I don’t know that, I never looked for a Polish bookstore in Berlin, but I never found one either xddd
Of course, all of the relevant recent magazines from Poland, did I say that I love magazines? I love magazines ^^
There is a book that teaches reading for kids back in Poland that runs down the generations called Elementarz Falskiego, admittedly, I didn’t learn reading from this one, but my mom did and she bought me one when I was a little older ^^
The author, Marian Falski, wrote it over the soviet occupation and it’s been standardized as The Book to teach you the language, and keeps getting new editions since.
What can you learn from it? Interestingly enough, looking at this release strongly reminded me of Japanese books for beginners, or even Satori Reader, with a big font and short, concise texts that are supposed to teach you specific wordplay and understand differences between words.
“And here is a doll.
And there is a doll.
But it’s the same doll.
That’s Ala’s doll - Lola.”
“Lola doll is three. And Tola is four.
Ala has as old as Lola and Tola.
So how old is Ala?
Ala is 3 + 4 years = 7 years old.”
“Tiny [bear] - tiny [doll]” “Pleasant [bear] - Pleasant [doll]”
Look at the wordplay there ^^
I’m really curious to find something like this in Japanese too ^^
Thorgal exposition
Ever heard of Thorgal? I remember one of my parents’ friends was a huge fan of the comic, but all you need to know for the sake of this thread is that it’s a fantasy series inspired by Scandinavia that got its own pop-up exhibition in Paris for a while. Thorgal was drawn by a Polish artist, Grzegorz Rosiński, and I was like POLAND MENTIONED and stayed at the exhibition for a while ^^
The comics are heavily manga-stylized and I’m like 80% sure that some of the 2010s viking manga might have been inspired by Thorgal as well, so you know, equivalent exchange of ideas ^^
Anti-Russian and pro-Ukrainian movement in Paris
For many historic reasons, Russia and France are really close to one another and this pains a lot of activists, be they French or Ukrainian… or even Russian, for the ones that left the country and don’t want to look back. Don’t get me wrong, I know a few people from Russia and one of them is one of my closest colleagues at the Works Council, I think Russian people that are outside of Russia are very diligent, ambitious and hard-working…
…but, Ukraine is currently one of the most FUCKED countries on the planet, making it the worse that even if the war were to end tomorrow (and it definitely won’t), demographic crisis will bring the country to its knees in decades regardless.
I try to carry Ukraine and their culture ideas within myself (something something nails, but non-literal too, including donations, art pieces, buying clothes from Ukrainians, etc.), but I really have a feeling that the Ukrainian culture is more or less doomed at this point.
Though, one thing that objectively kinda sucks about people selling Ukrainian stuff on the streets is that you know that the money is going into their wallets and not their countries, right? xddd
It’s still nice to support individual people, but, sigh.
Слава Україні! I really hope that you grow up to be strong and courageous people, I want to visit Ukraine one day and say thank you to all of the people that still decide on propagating the culture then ^^
Role of women in society
Always a funny topic, but I have a feeling that France has a bit of a different conclusion than something like Scandinavian countries do. Scandinavia feels like it tries to put an equality sign between men and women in every area available, while France feels like trying to empower them through their beauty.
And I understand both approaches, of course, everyone wants to be treated the same, just as well as everyone wants to be beautiful, but that’s an interesting thought I’ve had throughout my day thinking that Maomao from 薬屋のひとりごと definitely is half-French, half-Chinese xdddd
It feels weird to be pandered to in so many different ways at the same time, I can’t make up my mind for a France persona of mine and I haven’t bought any French clothing today, grrrr xddd
Of course, I’m sure there is a lot of casual sexism and misogyny involved, but there’s also Samus Aran on a wall going to Montmartre I’ve never seen in any other country or city before ^^
So do I want to be pretty, or do I want to be smart? Ughhh, too hard to make up my mind xddd
How is Notre-Dame doing?
Surprisingly good, it almost doesn’t look as if it was burnt in the first place xdddd
Though, if you look from the side, the metal piping still exists, and there is a story around the building about how the restoration process was taking place, but it’s open for tourists right now and everyone can go in ^^
I’m surprised they opened it back on time, if it were Berlin, they’d be like 5 years off xdddd
Fooooooood.
Paris is also known as the capital of food, and despite me falling for a few Japanese traps here and there, I still had a full on Parisian experience, would recommend C:
My mom is a huge fan of the Paul patisseries, so I pulled in and spent a while absorbing the mood ^^
Here’s an egg benedict I had for dinner…
…and the second meal, sirloin steak was it?
Wait, so how much have you walked today?
53.500 steps, 41.1km on feet.
I’m not a professional hiker, but I’m pretty proud of my result regardless. It’s been a true joy to just walk by everything and see the life happen in the background, so I hope I’ll get to do it again sometime!
Other thoughts
Overall, I was really surprised by Paris today: it was my first time visiting the city in years, and first time by myself. I was 100% convinced I’d find it boring or overrated, but instead it left me with a feeling of disappointment that Berlin is so far behind on Japanese culture compared to Paris xddd
I have a humorous point where I claim that I hate French language and I never intend on learning it at all in my life, and it does slightly save my mental load. At the same time though, with so much stuff culture-related available in France, and the fact they heavily invest into it year by year (picrel):
I’m a little sad I don’t know any French, but if I actually wanted to set off and start grinding it, it might be the number one easiest foreign language to learn in Berlin after English, I feel like, so I could always give it a shot ^^
Paris today was GREAT and I enjoyed it so, SO much C:
Yeah I’m never making a post like this again xddd
It was a fantastic day though, would heavily recommend ^^
So see you tomorrow, hopefully from Cambridge right next to Boston, if they pull me at the border, then probably Dublin, Ireland ^^